Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by Tim Lebbon.
Tim Lebbon (born 1969) is a horror and dark fantasy writer, and a judge at the 2005 World Fantasy Convention.
Tim Lebbon was born in London. His short story "Reconstructing Amy" won the Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction in 2001 and his novel Dusk won the 2007 August Derleth Award from the British Fantasy Society for best novel of the year. His novelisation of the movie 30 Days of Night became a New York Times bestseller and won a Scribe Award in 2008. Tim lived in Devon until he was eight and then in Newport until the age of 26. He now lives in Goytre, Monmouthshire with his wife and two children.
Relics #2
by Tim Lebbon
"Tim Lebbon's Relics opens a darkly beautiful glimpse into another world, one lurking in the shadows." - James Rollins, New York Times bestseller
In the dark underbelly of our world, there’s a black market in arcane things — living and dead. Angela Gough has been pulled into this world, making her a criminal on the run.
In London she encountered the Kin — satyrs and centaurs, Nephilim and wraiths, they are hunted and slaughtered for their body parts. Fleeing back to the United States, Angela discovers that the Kin are everywhere, and they are tired of being prey.
GUEST POST: Music or Silence... by Tim Lebbon
I'm a huge music fan. I have been since my teens, when it was heavy metal or nothing. Now my tastes have expanded quite a bit, but I still love music with attitude ... from Metallica to Marillion, Paul Weller to Tori Amos, Stiff Little Fingers to Sting. I'd listen to music all day, every day if I could (and I frequently do), but when I'm writing there's a definite choice about which music to listen to. I very rarely write in total silence.
Until recently, I've listened exclusively to CDs, so the music I could use to write to was constrained by my music collection. And while that's pretty large, if you're listening to music 7 hours per day you soon get through it, and the urge to find something else grows.
Until a couple of years ago I could cheerfully listen to all sorts of music while writing. It had to be pretty familiar, so that I wasn't straining to hear the lyrics (a total distraction). So it would be Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, and lots of music from my youth on rotation, toons so familiar that sometimes I'd listen to a whole album and not actually remember hearing any of the songs. And that was fine. It was background noise, accompanying my flights of imagination while I worked on whichever novel or story was open on my screen at the time.
Over time, though, I started to find that music was becoming more of a distraction. I started listening to classical and instrumental music, and then something happened that changed my whole musical world.
I stepped out of the stone age.
The only time I listen to CDs now are when I'm in the car (and that's only because I can't figure out how to connect my phone to the stereo ... technology and me are not the best of friends). It's all Amazon Unlimited now, a monthly subscription to listen to any band or song I can think of, old and new.
That's great when I'm not writing. But I've found it's also fantastic for when I am writing, because the whole world of movie soundtracks has also opened up for me.
I wrote most of The Folded Land to movie soundtracks. Hans Zimmer is one of my favourite composers, but there are plenty of others (Dredd and the John Wick soundtracks are incredibly immersive and kinetic). And when I was making notes and editing, the rock went back on. Frank Turner, Soundgarden, Alive in Chains, Skunk Anansie, and a hundred other bands and singers, all bore witness to Angela's and Vince's continuing adventures with the Kin, and those who'd choose to hunt them.
I've always believed that music makes the world go round, and it needs to spin just as fast––but in a slightly different way––when I'm writing.
So ... in the comments section, let's have some suggestions!